Initial impressions following the jump. First, a preamble:

It’s clear to me why the Nintendo Wii is still such a hard item to find on store shelves. I hadn’t intended on buying Wii Fit on its release day, and it seemed that by waiting the decision was taken out of my hands, since it’s sold out on every online retailer I checked. However, I live in the hinterlands of Virginia, so when I got a whim to go out and see if I could find a copy today after all, I figured I had a pretty good chance. As I got out of my car in front of the local Best Buy, I saw a fairly average looking woman walking towards me. . . carrying a box full of Wii Fit. I chuckled, since clearly they had at least a preorder stock. Once inside, I found a nice display of boxes, probably 30 or so still sitting out, so I grabbed one, thinking how this nice aspect of small town living totally doesn’t make up for the rest of the shortcomings. Ahem. Anyway. As I made my way to checkout, I saw something I don’t think I’ve ever seen in all my years of buying video games: everyone wants one of these things. Everyone. I may have been the nerdiest person in line. There were a couple of business looking guys, a couple of normal mom-looking women, there was one man who very likely was a grandfather, there were a couple of average sorts like me. And bear in mind, I’m unemployed, so this was at 10:30 AM - on the release day! I’m not sure that there’s any other conclusion to reach but that Nintendo has in fact tapped into the so-called ‘casual’ gamer market, bringing the video game back to people who probably stopped playing when Atari went out of style. Go figure. If you’re interested in my take on the game itself, read on…
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as reported here previously, i learn a lot of interesting things in the mornings when i’m on the treadmill and have the close caption turned on my tv.

today, for instance, ESPN told me that baseball commentator rick sutcliffe is about to return to the broadcast booth after a recent bout with “cologne cancer.” yikers.

Came across this interesting article in the Washington Post recently. I guess I can understand that there needs to be regulation of gas pumps so that there can be no trickeration. . . but it still seems like overkill to crack down on a mom-and-pop gas station in the middle of nowhere. It’s probably one of the few places where it isn’t just a cliche that people meet at the local gas station to chat amicably. Everywhere else the only thing the person behind the counter at the gas station wants to talk about is which pump you filled up at.

And seriously, why is it seemingly so difficult for any company to manufacture an upgrade for these pumps? Seems odd to me. I bet it’s some ridiculous complication due to the nine-tenths pricing. I’ve never really understood that, and my half-arsed internet research hasn’t turned up any kind of sensible explanation. Anyone know anything about why we’re not paying $4 per gallon, we’re really paying 3 dollars and 99.9 cents per gallon?

author’s note: the primary audience for this post is myself; the kind of thing that i want to actually write down in the hopes that it helps with self-accountability. if you’re bored, hey, by all means come along.

we watched juno last week. overall, an excellent flick; i highly recommend it. i really enjoyed the dialogue. it wasn’t sorkin-like, mind you, but it was better than one usually sees in entertainment. anyway, at one point, juno’s dad (played excellently by j.k. rowling, by the way) looks up at his pregnant daughter and says: “Hey there, big puffy version of Junebug!” funny stuff.

the next morning, as i was shaving, i looked at myself in the mirror and echoed: “Hey there, big puffy version of Wade!” less funny, but no less true.

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I did my level best to ignore, and then repress, what I heard on the news today. But then there was a follow up story today, and I could no longer avoid the horror. Basically what I’m saying is: don’t read this. And this.

But do make sure to vote in the poll in the second article. It’s one of the burning questions of our time.

If you’re unwilling to make a leap of horrific faith without any clues whatsoever, I’ll be nice and provide the following keywords: Giambi, Jason, thong, gold lamè. You’re welcome.

And in the course of rounding up today’s links, I came across this little gem. Moises Alou was common knowledge, but I was unaware of Cecil the Turtle Jorge Posada’s devotion to the practice. And I really didn’t need to know about Kerry Wood and the hat.